“Heart Attack” by Dave

We already know that when Dave gets in his feelings, harping on both personal and societal issues, things can get quite lengthy. And the song “Heart Attack” is actually one such account, consisting of just an intro, outro and verse actually, but said verse is more bars than we can comfortably count. So we’ll take a linear approach, as much as reasonable, in analyzing the lyrics in hopes of capturing all of the main points.

The United Kingdom is a country where handguns are actually illegal. Or stated otherwise there’s violent ‘hoods in England – including in its capital, London, where Dave comes from – but there aren’t guns freely floating around.  So that would be why in the intro the vocalist is rather harping on “knife crimes”. 

It may sound laughable to those from the mean streets of America to hear a rapper talking about the threat of blades instead of bullets. But hey, knives kill people too. And more to the point, Santan is using the opportunity to point out that “in some of the poorest boroughs of London” there has been an increase in violent crime and poverty, with the former being most expressed amongst the youth.

Dave, the Gangbanger?

But the above said, one of the first things the vocalist does upon the verse actually commencing, even if in a roundabout way, is threaten opps with knives. He also harps back to his own days of being involved in gang-related violence. But Dave is not bragging about being a gangbanger per se. 

Rather this is the rapper’s setup to go about illustrating how he personally grew up dealing with the types of issues detailed above.

And by this juncture in the song, it becomes obvious that what Dave is fundamentally doing, at least during the early goings, is presenting something like a British version of, say Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life” (1998). 

So for instance, he doesn’t allude to drug dealing being a big problem in the ‘hood per se. But still, youth are inclined to engage in similarly-dangerous types of illicit activities, packing a “flick blade… push bike and a sim”, in order to make ends meet.

London

Dave then gives a shoutout to London as being a ‘nice place to live’. And it doesn’t appear that he is contradicting what was stated earlier. However, he is rather sarcastically highlighting the vast difference between the haves and have-nots. And in one of the more confusing parts of the verse, it also seems that he may be dissing the idea of working a 9 to 5, with serving the man being akin to selling out, if you will.

More about the Lyrics of “Heart Attack”

Later, the artist notes how his thinking has matured from times past. For instance, nowadays, ‘staying loyal to his girl’ is a top priority. He also enjoys chillin’ with his brethren, relishing their company while he can, based on the understanding that “life’s too short”. 

Dave also implies that whereas he may get offended by people talking junk on social media, he doesn’t really take it to heart. In fact he never considered murdering someone until finding out that this ex-girlfriend’s father was abusing her, apparently. 

However, he ultimately concludes that it would be best if he just stays out of the matter. And seemingly, he comes to this conclusion based on the fact that he has a tendency to abuse her himself or at least has personally had anger-management issues in the past.

But this tale of what his ex went through and his emotional reaction to it is Dave’s way of briefly shifting the focus of the song to abuse against women, a topic he has rapped about before. And it is clear that he is sympathetic to the plight of those who are victims of domestic violence, of which it just so happens “most of them” he knows are or in the very least have experienced it.

Good Parents

Then Dave proceeds to show appreciation to the dedicated parents of the world, such as his own. He recognizes that they often put their own dreams aside in the name of adequately providing for their children. And for the record, his mom is actually a professional nurse. And he notes that she dealt with a considerable degree of mistreatment on the job. 

The rapper also alludes to some issue with his dad, but again, what is saying is not that evident.

Indeed Dave’s parents were actually immigrants from Nigeria to the United Kingdom. And by all indications they struggled in the name of providing for their sons. As such, Santan went through the full range of related experiences as a child, even “wishing (he) was a White man” at one point in his youth. 

Or stated differently, he basically attributed the poverty which defined his life and the suffering of his parents as being attributable to his skin color.

Growing Up

Dave then lets us know, once again, that he grew up witnessing street violence, even that involving guns this time around. He also implies that this rap is a freestyle, which by the way would explain its extended length.

The Gist of “Heart Attack”

And we could go on, as at this juncture we’re not even halfway point through the verse. But doing so would be for the most part tiresome and redundant, as we already get the gist of the song. 

Dave is more or less going back and forth between portraying a conscious artist and a violent one. But we would have to presume, all lyrics considered, that he’s more inclined towards the former. Thus the implication would be that it was growing up in the ‘hoods of London from which he developed the latter.

The Outro

Finally, the outro is arguably the most sentimental part of the song, the passage which is responsible for leaving fans of Dave in tears. This part is actually recited by Dave’s mom as opposed to himself. 

She reveals that she “left Africa” at an early age and basically had to survive in a hostile, foreign land with ‘nobody ready to help him’. The presumption, even though we know that Dave’s family dealt with their own particular problems, is that her plight symbolizes that of the average African immigrant into the UK. 

What “Heart Attack” is all about

So taking everything, including the outro, into consideration, we are left with two main ideas.  First and foremost would be that Dave is a hard dude, a product of being fashioned on the meanest streets of London. And secondly, we know that surviving therein as an outsider without adequate resources, as his parents were forced to do, is akin to going through a living hell.

Who is Dave?

Dave is currently one of the most popular and many would argue talented rappers from the UK.  In fact his come-up was strongly assisted by Drake, who did a remix of Dave’s track “Wanna Know” featuring himself. 

This was back in 2016, three years prior to Santan’s debut LP, Psychodrama, which went on to top the UK Albums Chart. That project was also impressively named Album of the Year at the 2020 Brit Awards. 

So as of the release of his second LP, We’re All Alone in This Together, on 23 July 2021, fans are very much anxious to hear what he has in store next. And this track is derived from said album.

“Heart Attack”

“Heart Attack” falls just a few seconds shy of being 10 minutes in length. But this isn’t the first time Dave has dropped such a long track. In fact one of the songs, “Lesley” (2019), from his previous album is over 11 minutes long.